Blue Jays futile final home stand a stark reminder of what went wrong

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Stripped bare in this season gone nowhere, the Blue Jays had but one thing left to sell their fans this week.

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Not playoff preparations. Not wins. Not climbing out of the basement of the American League East. Barely even hope, though it is the job of those still employed by the team to maintain some of that going forward.

On Tuesday, they once again had dollar hot dogs at the Rogers Centre, however. And another brilliant outing from the Jays late-season sensation, starter Bowden Francis.

“Be a part of Loonie Dogs history,” an actual headline in an actual press release from the team read, the stumping for one final chance to gauge a fan base in support of a team that will fall well short of anything resembling meaningful history.

Who needs a winner, when you can have a dollar wiener, after all?

But more seriously as this slow-playing drama comes to its conclusion is wondering how did we get to this point? How could it be that a Jays team expected to be at their peak of competitive window could win 75 games or less?

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“I think we got to this point for a variety of reasons,” manager John Schneider said by way of frank explanation prior to Tuesday’s latest disheartening debacle, a blown lead, 6-5 extra-innings loss to the Boston Red Sox. “Ya, everyone has injuries and I think the timing of ours were unfortunate and I think it comes down to performance or lack there of consistently.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about the last couple of weeks. It comes down to consistent performance offensively and uncharacteristically some eye-opening performances bullpen-wise in terms of walks and home runs. That’s not a good equation right there.”

No, it most certainly is not for a team that at 73-85 fell to a season-worst 12 games below .500. The indifference with which they are crawling to the finish line must be opening some eyes as well as the Jays have dropped five in a row and seven of their past eight.

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But soon comes the moment of truth for a franchise that will finish last in their division for just the third time this century and the first since 2013.

In so many ways, what has unfolded this season is the bottoming out for the current administration of president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins.

Sure, the team won just 73 and 67 games in 2018 and 2019 but that was when the team was in full teardown mode, the blueprint to make seasons like 2024 a time for World Series contention. In that sense, what has unfolded over the six months has been worse than the most morose of the Charlie Montoyo years.

Instead, it was chasing that “record” for the most dollar hot dogs sold in a season from a fan base that has to start feeling sucker-punched.

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“We’ve got to do some stuff,” Schneider acknowledged of the hard work ahead. “It’s been weird, where you start a season and you think ‘okay, this player should do this, or this player should do that’ and some have, some haven’t.

“There’s definitely accountability from the players and understanding that they haven’t lived up to what they thought they would be in some cases. It’s a collective effort that we are what we are.”

That the coaching staff is going through the process of evaluation and recalibration of expectation is one thing. But the heavy lifting comes not long after this season is finally shut down on Sunday and the most critical off-season yet begins for Atkins and company.

As Schneider noted, there’s plenty to be done. The manager has been frank and forthright in his comments during the first two games of this final, futile home stand. One can only hope that his bosses serve up the same transparency when the final out of 2024 is made.

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Fans have had enough of that act and the drastic regression that has resulted. Or should have, anyway.

Sure, you can sell them dollar hot dogs at every Tuesday home game, but how long can you sell overpriced tickets to an underachieving product?

BRAVO BOWDEN

Francis didn’t flirt with a no-hitter this time, but the big righty was terrific once again, allowing just three Red Sox hits through five shutout innings.

And that closed the book on an incredible run through the latter half of the season for the big right hander.

Since becoming a regular in the rotation in July, Francis had a skimpy 1.80 ERA and twice took a no-hit bid into the ninth inning in recent starts.

On brand with the season, the Jays bullpen once again cratered. surrendered the lead as the Red Sox scored two in the seventh and one in the eighth to send it to stomach-turning extras.

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Starting with an RBI double from Trevor Story, the Red Sox scored three in the 10th to cruise to a win.

TRACKING VLAD

The Vlad Guerrero Jr. contract situation will be a leading storyline in the off-season and at least his on-field exploits are serving up a slice of something to follow the final week of the season. Guerrero belted a two-out, two-RBI double in the third inning on Tuesday, his 195th hit of the season. With four games remaining, Guerrero needs five to become just the sixth Jays hitter to reach that mark. The belt to deep centre field also served up RBIs number 101 and 102 for Guerrero.

Guerrero had a chance to be the hero in the 10th with runners on first and second and one out but flew out to right field as the Jays scored two to fall a run short.

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